The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), September 2007

This report shows that parental engagement is the key to reducing teen substance abuse risk and that one of the simplest and most effective ways for parents to be engaged in their teens’ lives is by having frequent family dinners.
Compared to teens who have frequent family dinners (five or more per week), those who have infrequent family dinners (two or fewer) are:

• three and a half times likelier to have abused prescription drugs;
• three and a half times likelier to have used an illegal drug other than marijuana or prescription drugs; and
• three times likelier to have used marijuana.

Compared to 12 and 13 years olds who have frequent family dinners, those who have infrequent family dinners are six times likelier to have use marijuana.
Among 14 and 15 year olds, those who have infrequent dinners are three times likelier to have used marijuana; among 16 and 17 years olds they are twice as likely to have used marijuana.
Teens do want to have dinner with their families. 84 percent prefer to have dinner with their families rather than eat alone.
Teens who have dinner with their families five or more times a week are likelier to say that they receive mostly A’s and B’s in school compared to teens who have fewer than three family dinners per week (64 percent vs. 49 percent).